Kuipers is the first Dutch astronaut to return to space. On 5 August 2009, Dutch minister of economic affairs Maria van der Hoeven, announced Kuipers was selected as an astronaut for International Space Station (ISS) Expeditions 30 and 31. He was launched to space on 21 December 2011 and returned to Earth on 1 July 2012.[1][2]

André Kuipers was born on 5 October 1958 in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. He graduated from high school in Amsterdam in 1977, and received a medical degree from the University of Amsterdam in 1987. He is married and has three daughters and a son.[3]

When interviewed about his youth, Kuipers stated that he dreamed of becoming an astronaut ever since he was a teenager.[4] His dreams became reality when he was selected to the European Astronaut Corps in 1998.

Kuipers has flown two space missions: first the DELTA mission in 2004. In May 2009, he served as the backup of Belgian astronaut Frank de Winne, who later became the Expedition 21 commander, during the later part of his six-month mission. On 21 December 2011, Kuipers was launched for his second spaceflight PromISSe on Expedition 30 and Expedition 31. He returned to Earth on 1 July 2012.[5]

Using the SoyuzTMA-4, mounted atop a Soyuz-FG rocket, Kuipers and his fellow cosmonauts Gennady Padalka (Russia) and Michael Fincke (USA) rocketed towards the ISS in the early morning of 19 April 2004. The spacecraft flawlessly docked to the ISS two days later.

Padalka and Fincke remained on board the ISS for six months, as the Expedition 9 crew.

Kuipers returned to Earth nearly eleven days after launch on 30 April, joined by departing ISS crew members Alexander Kaleri (Russia) and Michael Foale (US), who thereby ended their six-month stay on board the ISS.

On 26 November 2008, Dutch minister of economic affairs Maria van der Hoeven pushed for a second, six-month mission for Kuipers in 2011.[8] In the same speech, she said she would support the ISS project with an extra "few" million euros.[8]

After a call with ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain on 4 August 2009, Maria van der Hoeven confirmed on 5 August that Kuipers would be making a second space flight, starting in December 2011.[9] Kuipers was the first astronaut to be selected for ISS Expeditions 30 and 31. Kuipers launched on 21 December 2011 on the Soyuz TMA-03M flight with his two fellow crew members Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko from the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, and Don Pettit from NASA. They arrived at the station on 23 December 2011 when their Soyuz docked to the Rassvet module on the Russian side. They returned to earth on July 1, 2012, when their Soyuz TMA-03M touched down in the steppe of Kazachstan. [10]